We maintain two other blogs, both of which are called Out of the Box. Our oldest one is for the Wendy Foster Clothing stores and the purpose is to show the newest fashions as they arrive, thus Out of the Box.
The other is for the Upstairs Home Gallery which is an unusual and eclectic collection for the home. This blog, also called Out of the Box, is of particular interest as the Holiday Season approaches. We carry links on the sidebar but we thought it worthwhile to bring it to your attention.
Both blogs, as is the winery blog, are refreshed constantly.
Our first pressing of the 2007 harvest.
The wine is drained from the fermenter leaving the solids behind. These go into picking boxes and then to the press.
The press has an inflatable bladder which gently expands pressing the grapes against a screen. It acts similar to a basket press, gently pressing down without disturbing or damaging the solids. The press cycles and the increasing pressure is carefully monitored by the winemaker — each variety is treated differently.
This press will hold the solids from our standard 8 ton fermenters but it can also be used for very small lots such as the 1-1/2 ton portable fermenters as seen in the photo below.
Red wine, which ferments on its skin, needs to have its cap, or solids punched down two or three times a day. Punching down pushes the solids, which rise to the top, into the fermenting juice below. Color comes from the skins but that is not the only thing extracted — tanin, flavors and much more – are also part of the receipe.
In our regular Stainless Steel fermenters we use a mechanical punch-down but in these small portable fermenters it is all sweat. These small tanks hold a ton and a half and once filled are placed in our giant cold room to bring the temperature down to 45 degrees and permit cold contact between juice and skin before the start of fermentation.
The worker below, a friend of Winemaker Bruce McGuire, is an MD who frequently drops by and is immediately put to work — a warning to those who intend to ’drop by’. Many of these small lots end up as our vineyard designated wines and are carefully monitored from start to finish. We hope the good doctor, present at the creation, will ’drop by’ for the final evalaluation.
These are images of the pickers early in the morning. They have been picking since 3:00am. The fog has lifted but has not completly rolled back, by 10:00am it should be sunny and warm. This week the weather has been ideal — warm low 80s with a pleasant cooling breeze.
The Pinot Noir harvest is below normal — maybe 25% below — the clusters are small and the grapes are small. Look for dark and intense Pinots this year. We cannot account for the low yields, since other varieties appear normal, but we suspect that an early spring frost might have damaged the vines. The logic here is that Pinot Noir is the first to bud and the other varieties might have still been dormant — even the canopy seems a little sparse with shorter canes than normal.
At Santa Barbara Winery we are now receiving Sauvignon Blanc grapes but Chardonnay is not far behind.
David Lafond has taken some photos of the Chardonnay in our Lafond Vineyard that show off its golden qualities.
The Santa Rita Hills appellation is known for both its Pinot Noir and Chardonnay although the former is getting all the press lately. Chardonnay will, undoubtedly, begin to receive the same recognition and we would point to our 2005 Lafond, Lafond Vineyard Chardonnay as an example — balanced, fruity and complex with none of its components dominating.
Winemaker Bruce McGuire has selected the Vineyard Designate Wines which will remain in barrel for another seven months and now he prepares the Santa Rita Hills Pinot Noir and two Pinot Noir clone selections, which have traditionally been bottled the summer after harvest.
The images show the wine being extracted from the barrels by nitogen pressure so that there is no need to pump it. At this stage when the wine is still sitting on its lees we carefully extract it leaving the lees in the barrel. The barrels are then thoroughly cleaned and stacked ready for next year’s harvest.
David Lafond has rigged up a system where the water and the lees are collected below the winery in a mobile tank. The water and the lees are then spread throughout the vineyard with the intention of encouraging a wild yeast population similar to that used in our fermentation.
Three new releases:
Lafond Vineyard 2005 Pinot Noir Clone 777
Lafond Vineyard 2005 Pinot Noir Clone 113
Lafond Vineyard 2006 Chardonnay Wente Clone
In viticultural terms grape clones are not really clones, there is no DNA manipulation. In every vineyard there are vines, which through natural mutation, produce grapes that are a little better than the others. This can range from color, flavor, bunch size or any other criteria. If the the characteristics are of sufficient value the grower may graft the wood from this vine to a standard root stock. It is still the same variety but with emphasis on the new characteristics for which it was selected.
Pinot Noir is the variety most susceptible to these mutations and in the past 20 years many of these new clones have been recognized and used in vineyards in California. In our vineyards we have 8 different Pinot Noir clones. Many we value as stand alone wines, and all, as components adding complexity to the final blend.
The three wines we are releasing include a Wente Clone Chardonnay. Selected from our best Chardonnay block, fermented and held in stainless steel, without malolactic fermentation. The result is a wine that brings out the full characteristics of this great grape – incredibly fruity and rich.
All thee wines are being sent to this months Wine Club Members.
Each wine is priced at 38.00 and for a very limited time we are offering the Three Wine Clone Selection for 99.00 + tax + 6.50 shipping charge.
For more information and to order.
Recent Comments